Remington Sportsman 58 magazine question

Hello All,

I found this forum by Google and would like to say that I'm impressed with knowledgeable answers I've seen. Hopefully I'm in the right place - my local gunsmith is backed up for 6-8 months.

This shotgun is the first one my brother and I ever shot as a kids. Unfortunately I inherited it from my dad four years ago. My son is now 10 and hunted with me all season with light a 20 ga pump. I'd love to get him on my old Rem 58 next season if I can. Here is my problem.

Since I can remember it was always used as a single shot. Now that my dad is gone I can't get an answer as to why. I'm not sure it it was plugged for training purposes or because there was a problem with it. So, I broke it down, took out the plug, cleaned it up, and carefully put it back together. I'm having a problem with it feeding the shells from the mag. At first no shells would come out at all. I noticed the left shell latch was bent in quite a bit and was holding the shell in the tube. When I broke it down to take a look, the shell latch had quite a bend to it - not the U shaped bend that fits in the receiver - but at the U end towards the mag. I'm not sure if this part is my problem or not. I tried adjusting it, basically carefully bending it so that the back and front parts outside the U are in line, but no luck. Now it spits out both shells from the mag. :banghead:

That being said, I have no idea how the action is designed to work. Does the shell latch hold the shells in the mag and then when shot the action pushes it out of the way, allowing a shell to feed? Or does it simply guide the shell from the mag to the receiver (so the carrier release holds the shell in place)? Or is there something cool I don't even know about?

Here is a good pic of the shell latch part I'm talking about:


Thanks for any advice!

- Larry

Thanks y'all for the info! Now that I know how the action works I can see how the action pulls the shell latch back and generally how it should fit. I have a 20 ga and I can't find the part for it now, but I'll keep checking back. For now I've been tinkering with it and I have it working 80%.

I shot it a couple of times last year a shell at a time, but I can't wait to see my son use it!

Thanks again,
Larry